Many of us have been brought up to rely on our own good judgement and make sure to be self-sufficient, relying on family for help if needed, but better not make use of that too much. This seems to me to be a very pressure-ridden approach, especially since the way families work today is very different from only 50 years ago.

More and more people live alone, in relatively small homes, and their families further away than just the next larger town. This puts us into ever more of a difficult spot: we rely on friends rather than family members to a much larger degree than used to be the case for our own parents. Worse even: many – especially the older generation – may not have friends in a position to provide assistance when needed, and they have to fall back on social services or the kindness of neighbours and total strangers.

I have written and spoken in videos a lot about what I call the “outsider’s view”, the notion that we get used to the way things are and stop seeing any other way of doing thing, or arranging things in your home. This also includes our ability to overlook when things start to slide and stuff starts accumulating in the dark corners or on top of your furniture outright.

It requires an outsider to come in and point out what seems to go wrong, as well as the person(s) living in that home to trust and accept that advice if change is to be happening anytime soon.